GRAND VALLEY
A L L E N D A L E & G R A N D R A P I DS , M I C H I G A N ST U D E N T- R U N P U B L I C A T I O N S // P R I N T · O N L I N E · M O B I L E // L A N T H O R N . C O M
T H U R S D A Y, M A R C H 2 9, 2 0 1 8 // VO L . 52 N O. 5 3
EVENTS
Raising up voices
GR mayor to speak on campus BY SARAH HOLLIS SHOLLIS@LANTHORN.COM
BREAKTHROUGH: Marisa Kwiatkowski, Indianapolis Star reporter, speaks during a Q&A session in the Linn Maxwell Keller Black Box Theatre on Monday, March 26. Kwiatkowski, a 2005 graduate of GVSU, was part of the IndyStar team that broke the USA Gymnastics/Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal. GVL | EMILY FRYE
GV alumna Marisa Kwiatkowski returns to campus to discuss USA Gymnastics/Nassar investigation BY JENNA FRACASSI ASSOCIATE@LANTHORN.COM
“T
here’s this public perception of stranger danger, … but the vast majority of sexual abuse cases, the person knows their perpetrator; they know the person who’s doing it to them,” said Marisa Kwiatkowski, Grand Valley State University alumna and investigative reporter for The Indianapolis Star (IndyStar). Kwiatkowski, alongside two of her colleagues, produced an immense investigation into USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar that has garnered national attention. On Monday, March 26, Kwiatkowski was welcomed back to GVSU to participate in two separate talks. The earlier talk was held at 1 p.m. in the Linn Maxwell Keller Black Box Theatre. This event, part of the Robert Mayberry Comm-Unity Series, was co-moderated by multimedia journalism professor Jeff Kelly Lowenstein and recent GVSU
graduate Kelly Darcy. The session was formatted as an intimate Q&A, allowing students, staff and faculty alike to chat with Kwiatkowski. Prior to receiving the tip on USA Gymnastics, Kwiatkowski had been working on an investigation in failures to report sexual abuse in schools. The same day she received the USA Gymnastics tip, she flew to Georgia to pick up almost a thousand pages of documents. What those documents showed was the USA Gymnastics policy in how they had, for many years, been handling allegations of sexual abuse. According to Kwiatkowski, what her team found was that USA Gymnastics dismissed a lot of allegations of sexual abuse as hearsay unless those complaints were signed by a victim, a victim’s parent or an eyewitness of the abuse. “If you know anything about sexual abuse, you know that first of all, there’s very, very rarely an eyewitness to the abuse that has happened and that it’s also incredibly rare to get a survivor who
would be willing to come forward and sign documents, especially when you’re talking about in some cases an 8- or 9- or a 12-year-old gymnast,” Kwiatkowski explained. The next step was finding out how often the USA Gymnastics policy came into play and what the impact of that policy was on the safety of the children in that sport. The team requested records from all over the country, got background information on hundreds of coaches nationwide and also connected with survivors face to face to hear their stories. One of the things the team found was that USA Gymnastics had sexual misconduct files compiled for about 54 coaches in just under a 10-year period. “In some cases they would get a complaint about a predatory coach, they would look at it, and they wouldn’t investigate it, they wouldn’t report it, they would just file it away into that system,” Kwiatkowski said. The first story the team produced—which went through 13 different editors—was published in August of 2016 and
was focused on the USA Gymnastics policy. Within hours of publication, the team received tons of emails from individuals alleging misconduct against various gymnastics officials. However, one email in particular stood out: Rachael Denhollander explained that she wanted to share her story, but that the person who had abused her was not a coach, but rather a doctor, Larry Nassar. Within a few weeks, the team received two more reports of allegations against Nassar. The first one was initially from a Jane Doe who has since become public, Olympic medalist Jamie Dantzscher, and then a third individual as well, who has now become public, Jessica Howard. Kwiatkowski described Nassar as “a beloved figure in the sport of gymnastics” at the time they were looking into him. He was still working at Michigan State University, had never been charged, never been publicly accused, and was running for a local school board. SEE VOICES | A2
Grand Valley State University has been honoring the memory of Kenneth R. Venderbush since 1999 with an award in his name and a series of annual leadership lectures. This year, instead of bringing in three speakers for the Venderbush Leadership Lecture, GVSU will be hosting Grand Rapids’ first female mayor, Rosalynn Bliss. The Venderbush Leadership Lecture will take place Wednesday, April 4, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Pere Marquette Room of the Kirkhof Center. The event will feature Bliss speaking about her leadership experiences and how they brought her to where she is today. “She has a very good background; she’s done a lot of things,” said Tyler Clark, a graduate assistant in the GVSU Office of Student Life (OSL). “She’s been on a bunch of different improvement boards for around the area; she advocates for a lot of groups out there; and even just in her work, besides being the mayor, she’s a pretty extraordinary woman, and we’re really interested in hearing what she has to let us know. It’s not often we can get somebody as busy as she is to be able to come down for a talk.” After Bliss’ presentation, students will have the opportunity to submit any questions they have for her. “Basically, what she’s doing is she’s coming in and talking about her leadership experience throughout her life and how she ended up where she is today and all of the things that she’s involved in,” said Autumn Jager, leadership intern for the OSL. “She’s actually involved in a lot of different things. She does some health-care stuff, and she has been really involved with the GR 101 program.” OSL officials believe it’s important for students to attend this event to broaden their leadership skills and learn about how to use their leadership skills to achieve their goals. “She’s mayor of the second-largest city in the state of Michigan, she just has a lot of really good life lessons for people to hear, and I think that there’s a lot to take away from her being able to talk about the journey that she’s been on to get to where she is,” Clark said. SEE BLISS | A2
CLASSROOM
Students learn Spanish through puppetry class BY EMILY DORAN EDITORIAL@LANTHORN.COM
On any given Monday or Wednesday afternoon this semester, in the D wing of Mackinac Hall, you can find 12 students spread across their classroom and the neighboring Language Resource Center rehearsing original Spanish scripts and acting with homemade puppets. In the background of the classroom, associate professor Jason Yancey plays lively Spanish pop music while moving from group to group to check in on students’ rehearsals and answer questions. In the LRC, students practice performing behind the curtain of a puppet stage, seemingly uninhibited by any anxiety of rehearsing in front of students there for other classes. This is Spanish Laboratory Theatre, a 300-level hybrid elective for students who want to improve their language skills in a unique way, replacing academic papers with creative scripts, puppet building and live performances in front of elementary and college students. “For me, this is not a theater class,” Yancey said. “This is not about making them puppeteers. It’s not about making them actors. It’s about helping them overcome the anxiety that they might feel when they have to speak to
someone in Spanish.” When Yancey first started teaching the class at Grand Valley State University in 2010, he discovered that the props and resources immediately available for his students to use were practically nonexistent. Drawing on his own unique expertise in theater, including behind-thescenes building and production, he brought in his own props, which he continues to use, including the stage for performances that he has modified and updated over time. During rehearsals, students are also able to use puppets from his personal collection as stand-ins before building their own. Over the years, Yancey has amassed a collection of more than 200 homemade puppets. “I don’t usually buy puppets,” he said. “It’s like buying somebody else’s kid. … Many times I build puppets because I want to try something new, because I have a new idea.” As part of the class, students create their own puppets that they later use to perform in front of students at local Spanish-immersion elementary schools. Despite the students only spending about a week putting their puppets together, the final products are remarkably detailed and well-constructed. “I spent 12 hours five days a week
over spring break making this,” said Kendra Marckini, holding up her wide-mouth foam puppet. “I put my heart and soul into this guy.” Felipe Gonzalez III, a baker in a white button-down shirt and red gingham apron, is made from foam and fabric and held together by stitches and glue.
“This was my first time sewing ever,” Marckini joked. “My mom had to show me how to use a sewing machine and how to do stitches. I burned my hand on glue. I’ve been stabbing myself all over.” Yancey said the benefit of requiring the students to build their own puppets is that the hard work they put into
the process ensures that they are personally invested in the overall project. “I find that having them build a puppet means that they care,” he said. “If I just had them buy a puppet or rent one, I don’t think they’d care as much. I think they’re proud to share the work SEE PUPPET | A2
¡TITIRITERO!: Alison Keaser and Katie Zerkle practice their puppet skit on Wednesday, March 21, to prepare for an upcoming performance. Both students are members of Jason Yancey’s Spanish Laboratory Theatre class at GVSU. GVL | EMILY FRYE